The Hand You're Dealt
by MinaRobins
Summary: A spark is felt between Julia and Audrey, hopefully they'll be able to overcome Haven's insanity together.


**Title:** The Hand You're Dealt

**Author:** Mina Robins

**Fandom:** Haven

**Pairing:** Audrey Parker/ Julia Carr

**Rating:** G.

**Summary:** A spark is felt between Julia and Audrey; hopefully they'll be able to overcome Haven's insanity together.

….

"It feels like foul play." Nathan noted. His grip on the case folder tighter than usual, he could see the parchment in his hand but no feeling registered in his mind, his nerve endings still useless or non-existent.

Smirking, his partner replied "Okay, no one says 'foul play' anymore."

He didn't appear amused.

"Look, I'm sorry; I just don't see anything suspicious." Audrey explained as she leisurely spun the snow globe upside down.

"Well, I'll have to agree." Julia chimed while casually leaning by the office door.

Nathan glanced up at the brunette he had grown up with and felt his lips twitch towards a frown.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Audrey asked the estranged daughter of Haven's late EMT. Julia had disappeared for a while to deal with Eleanor's property; this was the first time in two and a half weeks since Audrey had seen her. The detective rolled her neck and curiously wondered why she could so easily recall the time spent apart from a woman she hardly knew.

"I did a summer rotation with the M.E. a few years ago and with mum gone, you needed a hand." She gestured to the office. "So, here I am."

"That you are." A pause as Audrey's eyes lingered on the woman. "So do you think this whole car thing, do you think it's an accident?" The blonde motioned to her partner; she wanted the info more to humour Nathan than anything else.

Julia bobbed her head and quickly moved forward. "Here are my primarily findings."

Their fingers brushed, Audrey smiled oddly at the sensation and blinked up at the blushing brunette.

Nathan tried to control his frown from transforming into a sneer. Last time he had met Julia it was over Hanna Driscoll, he crossed his arms. Great, another Duke.

"No injuries inconsistent with a really rockus explosion." Julia explained with a smile matching Audrey's.

The male cop jumped at the opportunity. "Which is what really bothers me; I mean cars don't just explode!" Nathan rubbed his knee absentmindedly, still nothing.

"See, I know I'm usually the one that asks all the questions but I just don't see anything here." Audrey continued to dutifully scan the information but found nothing that required query.

"Well I'll like to ask around a little more." Nathan furrowed his brows; it was bugging him that Audrey would just write him off when he had a gut feeling he wanted to follow. "If that's okay with you." He was being sarcastic but the blonde didn't react.

Audrey had already return to an earlier document and waved animatedly to Nathan's suggestions. "Yeah, no go ahead, feel free, that's fine." Her partner has been rather insistent with spending excess together time on cases, it was beginning to suspect he was interested in her but that can't be. But whatever he was doing it was slowly grinding on her nerves.

After a beat he tried again, indicating between them with his hand. "_We_ could go talk to her co-workers."

Julia grinned at Nathan's rather persistent and failing attempts at getting Audrey to join him on his hunch. Her eyes flickered up to his downcast face when the blonde had just continued writing, apparently missing everything he said.

Sighing with resignation, Nathan politely motioned to the woman by the door. "Thank you Julia."

Julia shrugged and smiled. "No big." Audrey seemed more than reluctant to answer the detective, maybe she hadn't been imagining things. "Hey Audrey, would you like to grab a bar stool sometime?"

The blonde paused; she _did_ need to work on her social skills… Julia seemed like a good person to befriend since they'll be working together in the near future.

"It's kind of nice to talk to someone outside of this strange little petri dish once in a while." Julia finished with a hopeful smile.

The blonde curled her lips into a smile as well and shrugged. "Yeah, sure."

Julia smirked at Nathan's aggravated expression and giddily left the detective alone with her overzealous partner. It wasn't until she got back down to her office did she realized she had actually used 'strange little petri dish' to describe the troubled Haven, she slapped her hand into her fore head hoping she didn't sound too much like nerd to Audrey.

…..

After work, Julia had swung by and gently knocked on the door's glass window. Seeing she had garnered the detective's attention. "Drinks still on?"

The blonde had been more than happy to leave her desk.

As they approached the brunette's purple coloured cooper; Audrey found herself thinking of the people she had dated. She shook herself out of the reverie when Julia lightly touched her on the shoulder.

"If you're too tired we can do this on another day." Julia's hand stalled on the ignition. "I did kind of show up unannounced."

"No, I could totally use a drink!" Audrey nervously picked at her cuticles, wishing she had time to go home and change. "It's just that you look so meticulous even after work and I'm just feeling frazzled."

Julia reached over and brushed some of the blonde's hair away from her eyes. "You look beautiful."

Audrey felt her cheeks heat up and voiced softly. "Not, pretty or cute, do you really mean beautiful?" Feeling self-conscious for bringing up her own insecurities she wondered if the other woman had meant the compliment in a polite conversational way.

With conviction Julia answered. "Yes." A moment after realizing she was maybe being too forward she almost stammered out the rest of her sentence. "First day on the job with people that have watched me grow up and people I've grown up with, everyone is treating me like glass cause of mum's death."

Audrey immediately felt ashamed at herself for only going to check on Eleanor's daughter once after the incident. She had brought the town's favourite pastries and at first wanted to just drop them off in front of the door but realized that might have been viewed as rather shady action. When she was greeted with the sight of a teary Julia she didn't know what to do. Never the one to know how to manoeuvre around social norms she had stood on the welcome mat until Julia crumbled into her and sobbed. Julia had constricted her arms around Audrey's waist and squeezed until the blonde had awkwardly open her own arms and envelope the grieving woman in a bear hug.

"I'm sorry; your mother was something else."

Julia nodded, "I was going through her will and she had wrote me letters for just about everything, read them all the day you showed up, I'm sorry for being a complete mess and just crying on you."

"Don't apologize for feeling."

Julia blushed again and gripped her steering wheel harder than necessary as she pulled out of the Haven police parking lot. She wondered if Audrey realized that what she said could have been read in numerous ways. Numerous relationship related ways.

"So anywhere you prefer to go?

Audrey tried but came up with nowhere suitable for their date. Huh, she meant 'dinner thing' or 'grab a drink' thing and somehow the word 'date' appeared. Maybe they could go somewhere safe and easy. There was always the Grey Gull but Duke _was _a womanizer and she wasn't sure she wanted to unleash _that_ onto Julia. Then again they had probably known each other while growing up. "Grey Gull?"

"If you'll like, heard Duke took over the McShaw family restaurant, and I haven't really got a chance to catch up with him last time, it sounds like a good idea-"

"No!" Understanding she was sounding fairly forceful Audrey laughed nervously, why the hell was she jealous all of a sudden? "I always go there; maybe you could show me a local favourite instead?"

Julian grinned, happy to see that Audrey seemed to care enough to get jealous over her and Duke's friendship. "I know the perfect place, it's near my house."

….

Julia drove them to her home, the house was quaint, it's walls lined with well cared for flowers. Audrey and she had walked along the beach for about ten minutes to reach a small homely looking restaurant.

"Came here for comfort food last week, it has a comfy lounge area upstairs and a bar and grill that has tables set up to look over the ocean." Julia has her shoes in her hand and the wind from the ocean is lifting her hair.

"Nice." Audrey intoned approvingly while staring at the brunette. "Never been here before, then again I really haven't been anywhere in this town at least not for dinner."

"Has work been keeping you busy?"

Audrey shrugged, moved off the sandy beach to put her shoes back on. She shoved her hands into her back pockets, not wanting to admit she didn't really have a social life outside of her profession. Policing actually took a whole lot _less_ time than her old job. Before she came here, her detective work was her entire life. It drove lovers away and she felt sadden at the thought of driving Julia away. Not that this woman was her lover or going to be her lover just that she was a friend or beginning to be one. Audrey frustratedly pondered why she was feeling so convicted over a simple drink time with a colleague.

"Let's go in then?" Julia held the door open for Audrey to walk in first.

…..

The waiter that came by happened to be an old high school classmate of Julia. "Oh honey, I can't believe you're back!"

"Andy!" Julia wrapped the taller women into an exuberant hug. "My god, it's been years, look how you've grown!"

"And you haven't grown an inch." The waitress's long lashes blinked prettily as she grinned. "Guess you're the short one now."

"Excuse me," Audrey tried to keep emotion out of her voice but still ended up sounding possessive. "How do you know Julia?"

"Oh." The woman had completely missed Julia's companion. "My name is Andrea, this woman here use to tutor me for English, would've failed if she didn't explained to me all the intricacies the bloody required reading had." Andy fondly kissed Julia's temple and ushered the pair onto the deck outside. The table was right in the middle of the floor and the whole scene looked gorgeous, the setting sun had shot the sky a bright hue of colours and the ocean was licking at the beach's shores.

"Here you are." Once they had been seated in their table Andy offered the menu to them. "I suggest you go for the spaghetti."

"Is Matthew still making it by hand." After receiving a nod from their waitress, Julia excitedly grabbed Audrey's hand. "He adds the best ingredients into the pasta flour, eating the stuff plain is already quite delicious, with the sauce he makes it's even more fantastic."

"Mmmmhmmm, how did you guys not see each other the last time you were here?" Audrey asked.

"Well I was on vacation." Andy answered, curious why the blonde seem so antagonistic. "Or I could have had different time shifts, it's a small town but we don't _always_ see each other."

Audrey dumbly nodded realizing how ridiculous she sounded; it just seemed that Julia had such history here. Looking at the woman in her thoughts she knew that Julia had grown up here and it was only normal for her to know the locals. Why was she being so irrationally invasive?

"How about I surprise the two of you?"

"I wouldn't mind," The brunette gave Audrey another squeeze. "Is that okay with you?"

Audrey looked at their conjoined hands and mumbled. "Yeah, sure."

After their waitress left Audrey quickly pulled her limb from Julia's loose grip, immediately missing the contact. "Are you okay, if you want to go back; I will drive you home?"

"No, sorry, I'm just not quite feeling myself." Audrey took a breath and sighed. "Let's order a drink?"

Julia nodded and rose her hand up to call their waiter.

…..

After finishing the delicious meal, Audrey was feeling a whole lot more comfortable. Julia was fun to talk to and travelled almost as much as she did. They fell easily into talking about crappy airlines and constant moves. It was also getting clearer that she was attracted to the brunette.

"Strawberry daiquiri, huh," Audrey found Julia rather adorable when she sipped on her straw. "Bet those are pretty hard to come by in Darfur."

"Hmmph, some of the stuff I drank out in the bush, you will _not_ believe." The brunette swirled her straw around the drink. "But whenever I get anywhere near civilization, I can't resist a big peripheral mess like this."

"Yeah, I can get that." Audrey laughed and nodded, her gaze dipping to Julia's pendant and almost falling below the neck line. She swiftly averted her eyes, concerned if Julia had noticed. Her friend had inclined her head to the side and a smile lingered in her bright blue eyes.

"Julia, I didn't know Eleanor that well, but she…" Audrey glanced away, her memories of the kind EMT and the crying Julia resurfacing; maybe it was too early to go into something like this. "She was..."

"Unique." It was a statement from Julia, the quirkiness returning.

"Yeah."

"Mum did it all her way; she lived with this crazy troubled stuff and died with it." Julia shook her head derisively. "And she never bugged an inched for anybody."

"Are you okay with it?" Audrey inquired.

"She had a good run." Julia commented, going back to imbibing her drink.

Audrey got up from her chair and took the surprised woman into her arms. It's so easy to embrace Julia, and she had looked so dismayed at the moment that Audrey had to try and cheer her up again. Julia tucked her face into the nook of Audrey's neck, it tickled and Audrey had to admit it felt nice holding the smaller woman. When she pulled back she witness a jumble of emotions on the brunette's face, some she couldn't recognized and one she could of mistaken for… no.

Laughing apprehensively, the blonde released her friend and returned to her seat. "What kind of letters did she leave you?"

Julia blinked away her tears; it felt good to share herself with Audrey. She could tell the blonde was struggling with the correct way to show support and it warmed her heart to know that the other woman was concerned for her. "It's weird; she prepared one for my wedding, some for holidays and…" Julia paused to take another gulp of her drink. "And one for her death but all it has in it is a metal key to a safety deposit box, not even an post-it note and my mother has always been quite a note taker; heck she has a room filled with booklets of notes on cases you wouldn't believe…"

Audrey watched fondly as Julia rambled adorably on about her mother and… "Wait, how many booklets of notes?"

"Since she was training with the M.E. office way back in the beginning, you can have her notes on the Colorado Kid's autopsy if it could help you."

"She was there?" Audrey questioned suspiciously. "She never told me that."

"She helped handle the case." Julia confirmed with a nod. "She was probably waiting for you to 'earn' it."

Audrey was speechless; she was getting closer and closer to solving the case…

"Anyways, she took notes on everything you're welcome to go through them."

"Thank you Julia, that's…" Audrey's smile widened. "That's great."

"Hey, since we have to head back to my place for the car you could-"

"Oh you don't have to drive me home." Audrey didn't want to impose.

"But you could come by to pick up mum's notes." Julia had convinced. "C'mon I'll get the bill and then we can head off."

Audrey stood up and started walking towards the cashier before Julia could call their waiter; she smiled and waved Julia off from standing and following her. When she came back to grab her coat Julia was playfully glaring at her. "I wanted to treat the new comer."

"Wouldn't have let you." The blonde replied. "You're giving me notes on a case I've been hunting after _and_ showed me this amazing bistro, it's definitely my treat."

"Okay, but next time it's on me?"

Audrey flustered and wondered if it can be classified as date two if they ever went anywhere again. Throughout the night as they were casually chatting she could have sworn Julia had been borderline flirting with her. But she was never any good at social interactions. She could be imagining the whole thing. Which would suck because she has just came to terms with why she was so interested in Julia before. And why it felt nice to touch her but she has just never done this, at least not with a woman and it just seems horribly perverse having those kinds of thoughts about a-

When Julia takes hold of her hand as they leave the restaurant she stops trying to analyze the situation and finds herself enjoying the soft caress.

The notes were taken out and so was wine, coincidentally the label on the bottle a favourite of both ladies. The booklets holding the clues needed to find Audrey's potential birth mother lay unattended to as Audrey ran her fingers softly down Julia's back and with her other hand took the woman's wine glass away.

Julia held an interest over Audrey more than the endless secrets jotted down in the pristine moleskin notebooks.

Apparently Audrey was just as appealing to Julia.

It was the first night they had made love.

…

Audrey, Duke, Nathan and Julia are sitting in the empty Grey Gull, drinks left untouched on the old wooden table. Everyone is feeling befuddled by the days rapid events. Duke especially had stayed quiet after Vanessa had died in his arms. The strawberry blonde had drawn the man close and whispered something in his ear. Apparently it was nothing of importance according to the bar owner, but both cops weren't convinced.

Duke was glancing at Audrey discreetly, his eyes flickering with a decision. Nathan remained silent, patiently waiting for his partner to continue speaking.

The detective was leaning heavily forward. Her arms propped up against the wooden table while her finger tips rubbed agitatedly at her temples. She had killed that kid.

"This is all my fault." Audrey stared down into the candle's dancing flame, her eyes listless. "Vanessa is dead because I triggered her affliction."

The surgeon watched the blonde nod her head unconsciously, Audrey was silently agreeing with herself. It bothered Julia to see the other woman so upset so she started running her hands through her girlfriend's hair. She wanted to do a whole lot more but she was already pushing the whole 'no PDT' rule. Audrey was confident at her work but in her social life can be both demure and at times surprisingly geeky. She was ditzy and sweet. Julia was completely smitten with her.

The blonde was very loving in close quarters but had told Julia she wanted to keep them on low profile because of the troubles and the people Audrey had to deal with. '_I just never want to see you hurt because of me_.' Julia had moments of doubt whether Audrey was embarrassed of their relationship since she was the first woman the cop had ever been with. But after seeing the absolute concern in her girlfriend's eyes she had consented willingly.

Audrey glanced warningly at her then eyed the two men across from them. "And all those people are alive." She stilled her movements and pulled away after a second.

"Yeah but how did we know they weren't going to die anyway?!" Audrey drops her hands onto the table miserably; feeling angry all over again.

"You can go crazy trying to explain fate, looking for reason why things happen." Nathan spoke gently, his attention focused onto the little neon orange toothpick sword he was currently trying to lightly impale into his hand. Nothing, he felt nothing. He hadn't been able to feel anything since the troubles came back. At least not until… Her, his eyes lingered on his partner. "It's a waste of time." The toothpick broke against his palm. Still nothing.

Why was Julia being all touchy feely with Audrey? _'Women.' _He chaffed in his mind then freaked over how similar the events seem to be unfolding before him. This wouldn't be happening to him again. No way, Audrey was way too straight and he could feel her touch, which had to mean something. And he had gotten the girl last time. But the two women looked so content and fitted together so well, it was like they were made for one another.

Duke remained passive, his gaze contemptuous. It wasn't a waste of time to go over the information Vanessa had just given him. He apparently was going to do this one way or another, seeing that everything his baby sitter had seen before had come true.

"You never know when you're right." Audrey lifted her eyes to the small smile on Nathan's lips; the cop lifted his beer up and with verdict and added. "Screw fate."

She smirked and clinked her drink into his, along with Julia and Duke.

The tall man was never one to bow down to destiny, and if the town's ever morose cop could take a stand to it, why wouldn't he. "Agreed." Duke sipped his scotch; needing a little liquid calm after finding out parts of his and Audrey's future.

"Sorry about Vanessa." Duke frowned at Nathan for repeating his phrase, he had already told him sorry once.

Julia watched the exchange between the two men. When she was growing up in this town these two had been the reason of every childhood scrap. Along with their fighting if it there was mischievous and harmless incident the reason stood with these two boys. The cows have been tipped over at the ice cream shop? It was Duke and Nathan. The boats have all been untied from the dock? It was Duke and Nathan. Fruit missing from your trees, Duke and Nathan. And even after that whole incident with Nathan's accident happened Duke and he were still friends. Then one weekend it was as if all of a sudden a wall had been erected, and only derision brewed between them.

Audrey pushed a piece of hair behind her ears, her voice lacing with concern. "What did she tell you?"

Duke scoffed, a forced smile dancing on his lips. "Ah, well she told me what every man secretly wants to know," He conspicuously leaned forward, his tone unreadable. "How he's going to die, the 'how', yes, the 'when', not so much."

The pause and shared glances nervously flashed around the table as Duke downed the rest of his alcohol.

"How'd you die?"

Duke shoots the cop a stare and laughed softly, "Well apparently, some guy with a tattoo with a maze of four little people at each of the compass points grabs my face with his hand when…" he thinks for a second on how much needed to be shared, he looked at Audrey over the rim of his glass.

"Wait a second." Audrey's worry and interest both had been piqued. "Vanessa she had a vision of the Colorado kid before he died and it was a man's hand coming towards him…"

Julia worried her lip as Nathan drew the tattoo onto a restaurant napkin holding it up when Duke came by with a full glass. "This?"

Surprise lit Duke's face. "Yeah, how'd you know what that looks like?"

"We found it on a body one month ago."

Duke squints his gaze his Audrey, hope seeping from his voice. "Well if he's dead he can't kill me, right?"

Both cops stop talking. Audrey averts her eyes.

"What?" Duke asked, anxious now. "What, there's more than one guy out there with the same tattoo?"

"We know of at least one but," Audrey looks at Nathan as he nods confirmation. "There could be more."

The owner slid back into his seat, resolution in his speech after one last unnoticed glance at Audrey and Julia. "Well that's too bad because I'm going to find them first." '_And kill them'_ lingers in the air unspoken.

Julia wonders how Audrey doesn't realize how both guys pine after her; she looks at her new girlfriend. The blonde's eyebrow dipped in apprehension of what is to come.

"Looks like we're all on the same team." Duke swirls his refilled drink and gulps it down.

….

Julia is making them hot chocolate as the blonde pours all her attention over her mother's journals.

She walks up to the couch and places both drinks onto the table. The liquid still whirling around the metal teaspoons she had used to stir in the powder. "Sweetheart, have a sip?"

Audrey looks up at her girlfriend and warmly smiles, she lifts a mug up and blows at the top of the steamy liquid before taking a taste. "Wow, this is really yummy."

"I would hope so; it has Bailey's Mint mixed in it." Julia tries to stifle a giggle at Audrey's startled expression. "Let's just try to relax for the night."

"I can't." Audrey shakes her head and pushes the cup back into Julia's hands. "I need to work, I need to forget."

"About what happen to the boy?" Julia knew that Matt had very much so wanted to abuse his powers and burn all the people that had harassed him before.

"Yeah." It wasn't weird to have a companion that was a good listener. But it was weird for Audrey to _want _to share so much with Julia. Her girlfriend was being so great about facing the troubles. Julia had once tried so hard to leave the whole conspiracy of the town behind and yet was willing to dive right into the chaos with Audrey.

Julia walked around the couch and pulled Audrey until she was leaning with her back against the cushion of the furniture. "You did the right thing."

"Doesn't feel like-" Audrey moaned as Julia's skilled fingers moved over a particularly sore muscle in her shoulders. "There…"

The brunette kissed the back of Audrey's neck and leaned in to whisper. "Let me help you forget."

"I…" Audrey didn't want to push her new lover away; she never wanted to do that to Julia. She wanted to feel comfort and love. She wanted to forget. She spun around on her knees and drew her lover's body down until their lips touched. "Okay."

Before either could continue a knock pounded on the door.

…..


End file.
